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Looking for a home use dough roller

February 18, 2009 - 7:19am

bostonphotobill

Looking for a home use dough roller

I am looking for information on a home dough sheeter. Does anyone have any experience with the Somerset CDR-100 Dough Sheeter? I am most interested to know if it will roll croissant dough. Any other suggestions?

What are your exact needs for desiring a sheeter??..They have little purpose other than cranking out large quantities of uniformly flat croissant doughs, and pie doughs in a production bakery..I have also seen them used to initially flatten puff pastry and danish doughs after their overnight proofs in a refrigerator..The truth is that unless the baker has a lot of the same items to make in a row without stopping, the work can often be accomplished more quickly by hand on a bench top..

All of the professional dough sheeters that I used early on in my culinary career, or that I witnessed other bakers using later on in my career when I had transitioned into the restaurant, were large machines with a huge footprint when opened up for use..I would not consider even the smallest of these machines a home tool..Unless, one had a truly huge kitchen..Unless a home baker needs to make hundreds of croissants in a very short window of time, I could see little need for one..

For the price of a sheeter, I would much rather use the funds to purchase a used baker's bench measuring 48"-60" wide x 60"-96" long x 6"-12" thick..I would have the bench's working surface resurfaced if it needed it..I would also purchase a couple of professional-grade, 4" diameter, sealed bearing rolling pins measuring 12"-18" wide..A very heavy rolling pin, in my opinion, is an absolute necessity for rolling out puff pastry, croissant dough, or danish dough..These doughs need to be worked quickly so as to keep the butter between the layers as cold as possible..The large diameter of these rolling pins will put the baker's hands up above the dough where they cannot drag on the dough..The heavy weight of these pins, combined with a wooden bench of the proper height, allow the baker to more easily apply a greater downwards force to the pin than can be accomplished with a smaller diameter, lighter weight pin..The bench height is critical as it allows the baker to straighten the arms through the shoulders so as to use the entire upper body's weight to roll out and flatten these doughs..

I would seek out several of the no longer manufactured Dexter carbon steel bench scrapers, along with a proper bench scraper sharpener, a file card (to remove metal filings from the teeth of the file), and a natural-bristle bench brush..The sharpeners are a jig with a handle containing a tang-less, square, mill bastard-cut file, held in place with a pair of set screws..When the jig containing the file is laid against blade of a bench scraper, it will set the blade of the scraper against the file at the proper angle so as to allow the baker to file a single bevel edge on the blade to the point that it is virtually razor sharp..Properly used a bench scraper slices off a very thin layer of wood, carrying along with the shavings ALL of the dough stuck to the benches surface..The current stainless steel bench scrapers being sold are virtually useless when it comes to holding an edge for scraping a wooden bench..

When I learned my trade in the first bakery that I worked in water was NEVER used to clean the bench..Period..Just a sharp bench scraper..Water was occasionally used for certain doughs, such as rye doughs, instead of flour..Never as a cleaning agent..The large bench in this bakery measured 72" wide x 144" long x 18" thick, and was over 100 years old..It had a full-length steel trough that was 4" wide x 6" deep with closed ends that was screwed to one of the long sides of the bench..All day long we bakers constantly brushed and scraped dough leavings and dirty flour off the bench top into the trough, constantly exposing clean wood to work the next batch of dough..At the end of the day it was the apprentices (we were not called that, but that is what we were) duty to scrape the entire surface of the benches from one end to the other in one continuous stroke..Starting from the center of the benches and working outwards to the edges..Then the troughs had to be cleaned out of EVERY discernable bit of dough and flour..This prepared the benches for the bakers that came in starting at 10-11 PM..

Anyway, sorry about digressing onto a discussion of benches!!..My reason for doing so was to illustrate that a good, used wooden baker's bench, a pro-grade rolling pin, a carbon steel bench knife, a bench scraper sharpener, a file card, a natural bristle bench brush, a stainless steel 48" ruler / straight edge, a 5-7 wheel divider, and a pizza wheel cutter would, in my opinion, be a more versatile investment for working croissant doughs, than a dough sheeter..Which is a single-purpose tool, whereas the bench can be used for so many other things other than rolling out doughs to a unifiorm thickness in as quick a manner as possible..

I just took a good look at the Somerset website as regards to the CDR-100 dough sheeter..I should have done that before I made the above post..The CDR-100 is much smaller than the sheeters that I have had experience with, but I stand by everything I stated in the above post..It is still a very expensive, single-purpose tool for a home baker to consider owning..At an approximate price of $2200.00 (including shipping) one could purchase all of the above tools that I mentioned..

Another thing to consider is that there are going to be a myriad of nooks and crannies to catch and hold loose flour in such a machine..It will be impossible to keep truly clean, if that is a consideration..

First off, I'm not going to argue with anything Bruce said up there because with his forearms (from all that scraping and rolling) he could probably crush my skull like a grape. Just a word or two about sheeters. As you may know, there are two main types of sheeters, reversible (pastry sheeters) like the kind Bruce was describing, and single pass like the Somerset (also known as pizza sheeters). Both types are very expensive, with the pastry sheeters costing at least double the single pass ones. For making laminated doughs, the reversible ones are much, much easier and very quick. The single pass ones are not just 'half as fast', by design, they work the dough much differently. I'll explain more about that if you'd like. Anyway, I think if you're going to get a single pass, you're just as well-off doing it Bruce's way, if you're going to be making a lot and have the space, a 'small' pastry sheeter is worth the investment. Remember that you can prep a ton of laminated doughs ahead of time, then pull it out as you need it.Just like with breads, there's a big difference between mediocre pastries and great pastries. If you're doing it by hand and you don't have a pastry chef training you, it'll take a long time (and a lot of calories burned) to get to 'great'.

I have no experience with pizza sheeters, only the reversible pastry ones, so I will defer to Mark in his assessment of the two types..If you have experience with sheeters, then please feel free to disregard what I am about to say..Using the reversible sheeters will make working with laminated doughs much faster than hand rolling with a pin, but there is a learning curve..The key to working laminated doughs is KNOWING when to stop working with them and to return the dough to the refrigerator to get cold..This is especially important when you are rolling out the doughs to make the folds that create all of those desireable layers..Machines create heat faster than hand rolling does, so it is important to be aware of the dough's internal temperature so as to not melt the fat into the dough..

That being said, I feel that it is important to have the skill to work laminated doughs by hand BEFORE learning to work these types of doughs by machine..Please give us some input so we can have a better understanding of your skill level, as well as your needs and desires..This way we can better advise you..

Mark is correct in that one can waste a lot of ingredients and time learning to make great laminated doughs..There is no substitute for hands on training by someone that knows what they are doing..It does not require a pastry chef to teach this skill, any really good baker should have the proper skill sets to do so..The four German, and German-American bakers that taught all of us young bakers in that first bakery that I worked in, had a combined 100-plus years of practical, hands on experience..That knowledge base was invaluable in my learning curve..Especially, when it came to bread doughs, which in 1983 WERE NOT given much time, or emphasis, in culinary school..

I am also looking for a dough sheeter and your information is helpful. I am looking into starting a business making cinnamon rolls and have been looking at the Somerset CDR-500 and CDR-2000. I would need to keep labor costs low and be able to make rolls more quickly than I can currently make them. Would you still recommend rolling the dough manually? Does the Dough Sheeter "change" your dough?

Faith, I think initially you'd probably end up using more flour when rolling out your cinnamon rolls with the Somerset than you would by hand. Mainly because with the machinery, you REALLY want to avoid a disaster so you err on the safe side. So any dough changes would be typical of overflouring dough. I've never used one for cinnamon rolls, but I'd suspect that in the beginning it would take you longer than by hand, and gradually it would be faster with the sheeter (the learning curve Bruce is talking about). Also, as you get better at it, you'd use less flour as you see what you can get away with. If you like using tools and machines like I do and you're going to be making a ton, then I think one could benefit you. If you get easily frustrated with learning new tools or don't see yourself making more than a few dozen at a time, then by hand is the better option.

Thanks, Mark. The videos make it look so easy to use. I am going to have to take my dough somewhere and try one out. I will only be in the kitchen a few days a week and will need to pump out hundreds of rolls, so I feel like if I can reduce the time it takes to roll out the dough that would be so helpful. I do love new tools and am persistent.

Faith, If you do, as you mentioned, have the opportunity to try one before you get it, then that would be perfect. I didn't have that chance with my pastry sheeter, but I knew after getting it for a few thousand dollars that I'd make it work even if it killed me. Keep in mind that even if it takes you the same amount of time initially as doing it by hand, you'd be a lot less tired after using a sheeter than you would doing it by hand. I can sheet/laminate for 6 hours straight without raising a sweat. That's worth $$$. One other factor with using a sheeter, is you can work with dough that's colder than by hand since you don't have to use your strength to roll it out. That's how I get around using excess flour - when laminating, I chill my dough in the freezer so it's barely pliable negating the need for excess flour. Your sweet dough can come straight out of the fridge and even with butter in the dough, it would probably still be workable. Another thing to think about.

piece of dough will make about 56 buns one full sheet pan i could roll that out by hand in a minute or so 4 paeces will make ofer 200 the rest of the time is filling and cutting by hand which you have do by hand anyway so is the cost realy worth it if you are only making ine product?

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